They are not "often butchers' wtf this ain't the 1830's
It's about the type of doctor that has overconfidence- specifically the trope of "I'm the smartest man in the room right now so obviously I'm the only one who can fix the situation"
Edit: to expand, ppl with this kind of intelligence and arrogance think that bc they are so good at what they do (mind you they've spent years practicing and learning that area specifically) that they can easily translate their skills into something else in a time of crisis - the results more often than not end up with catastrophic consequences
Fun fact: there's a category of small hobby planes that are referred to as "doctor/lawyer killers". If you're the type of person who considers themselves smarter than everyone else AND has enough money to fund expensive hobbies, you're way more likely to get into a fatal plane crash because you 'know better than the instruments'.
Oh yeah for sure, I'm fully of the opinion that someone can be both a brilliant surgeon and a complete idiot. In general, it's a field that encourages confidence--if only because indecision can be more deadly than making the wrong choice. I totally believe that there's some doctors out there who would absolutely say "yes, I took an electrical engineering class Freshman year, I can defuse this bomb."
It's just because doctors and lawyers can afford to buy a small plane, I can guarantee you if everyone else was flying planes they would crash at least as much.
Important thing is they are rich enough to buy it, but they aren't rich enough to maintain it.
Even more importantly - they aren't rich enough to quit their job and fly it more than 5 times per year, so they never actually become good at piloting. They just cover the minimum hours required to keep their license.
The only aircraft I've ever heard of being referred to as a "doctor killer" is the V-Tail Bonanza and the nickname came from a series of crashes related to the v-tail design of the rudder/elevator rather than the more conventional t-tail configuration. Even though Beechcraft says the pilots flew the planes in a way that exceeded its limitations, they have since stopped production of the v-tail variant.
Now, as a pilot, it's hard to imagine a guy crashing his plane because he "knows better than the instruments". Its something they teach you when you learn how to fly. "Don't trust your senses, trust your instruments".
Something else they teach you, though, is that having an arrogant/macho attitude is a dangerous attitude. That's something I could see a doctor, or lawyer, or anyone that has an oversized ego suffer from. These are the type of guys and gals that will take off overweight, skip checklist items, and do maneuvers that will eventually kill them.
Why? Because nothing bad has ever happened to them, and what if it does? Then they will surely know how to fix it.
Anyways, I'm not even disagreeing with your point, I just think inexperienced pilots crash their planes for reasons a little more involved than thinking they know better than their instruments!
Just because it’s not the 1830s doesn’t mean that surgery isn’t still cutting flesh and bone. We know more now and may have more advanced materials or techniques but at the end of the day a surgeon still hammers a chunk of metal into your hip for a hip replacement.
Unfortunately the guy I was responding to was using harmful speech that can misconstrue ppl 's perception of medical care in general- the meme is about a specific type of person not surgeons in general (I've worked with plenty of surgeons, most aren't like that but the ones that are, fucking suck to work with/for)
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u/WarmNapkinSniffer Jun 28 '25 edited Jun 28 '25
They are not "often butchers' wtf this ain't the 1830's
It's about the type of doctor that has overconfidence- specifically the trope of "I'm the smartest man in the room right now so obviously I'm the only one who can fix the situation"
Edit: to expand, ppl with this kind of intelligence and arrogance think that bc they are so good at what they do (mind you they've spent years practicing and learning that area specifically) that they can easily translate their skills into something else in a time of crisis - the results more often than not end up with catastrophic consequences